Not so crabbit now!

I like it- thats a luxury vesion of mine, and with a lot less buckie stains.

I guess we know what to get you for Christmas.

That looks rather nice.

its a Scottish version of the Sydney Opera House.

Petty . I guess I need to ship you some IBC Root Beer , its the best IMO , Frosty rootbeer used to be good and the original A&W but they changed the formulas I think .

I like Barq's. Send us an address Petty and we'll fix you up.

Most root beer used to come from the roots of the sassafras tree, hence the term 'sarsparilla' for some versions of root beer. In fact the tree was so popular it almost became extinct, then other forms or similar flavoring were found, hence 'birch beer', etc.

I'm proud to be one of the few percent at most who can recognize sassafras, and though I've never made root beer I've often made sassafras tea. Smells like root beer.

I should add that there's a fairly recent (or I better yet resurgent) phenomena of micro brew root beers. hard to find, but fun.

sarsparilla? I remember that. I used to go to my local chemist shop and they would give you a glass of it as a health drink. It wasnt alcoholic at all though, so maybe its a different thing?. They dont do that anymore, and nobody has heard of it. its a kind of dark browny plummy colour the consistency of very watery treacle. gorgeous. once tasted never forgotten. I want some. how to describe the taste? maybe syrups of figs with spicy licorice-y retrogusto, but nicer.

root beer actually is a soda water drink. I think at some time it actually was a beer, but those days are long gone. Your description of the indescribable does pretty well: basically a cola drink, but not really. You seem to be describing the syrup base which would be mixed with soda water. Maybe your chemist wasn't clued in?

Other than wikipedia, I found this:

http://www.therootbeerstore.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=3

I didn't realize that Hires was the original commercial root beer, going back to the philadelphia world's fair in 1976. It actually predates coca cola! If I had know this I would have taken more interest in Hire's, which is still doing okay but not considered top of the line anymore.

I found this on the interweb.


The sarsaparilla plant, or Smilax regelii, is mostly a vine and is found primarily in Central America and South America. The most valued portion of the plant is its root, which has been used for medicinal purposes for centuries, much like ginseng or licorice root. The plant's root is very bitter, so it was a common practice for pharmacists to distill the useful chemicals and mix them with sugar water. Thus a popular beverage called sarsaparilla was born, years before other chemists would invent other medicinal drinks such as the original formulations of some well-known soft drinks.
There has been much debate over the true formula of the original beverage. The Smilax regelii plant was definitely used as a medicinal tonic, and it was often served as a sweetened beverage. Other formulas used a combination of birch oil and sassafras as a substitute for sarsaparilla root.


indeed thats what I remember when i was a kid, you could go into a chemist shop and ask for a 'sasparilla' drink, as a health tonic thingy, by all accounts its good for cooling the body when its very hot. But that was in the 70s/80s, they dont do it now. and it looks like sassafras and sarsparilla are different plants?

They're two different plants, but with similar flavors. I think sarsparilla is a scrub bush and sassafras is from a tree, or maybe the other way around.

When I was a kid we used to make gallons root beer by mixing water, sugar, yeast, Hires brand rootbeer extract syrup, and a few seasonings, then putting it in empty beer bottles and pressing caps on to seal them. We always put them in an outbuilding away from anything important because one or two out of each dozen bottles would explode

I had no idea there were so many varities! I look forward to trying them all.

Good find Mrs Figg! I had no idea the sarsparilla would come from South America. Sassafras if very different and not bitter at all.

On a different note, this remains one of my favorite cartoons from Bloom County, and in celebration of the new unStar Trek movie coming up:

http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add_strip.php?iid=84002

Colin Morgan won "Drama performance male" on the BBC National TV Awards!!
Look at that face!


(i_canz_dragon on Livejoural)

I thought he was good in Merlin- but better than Matt Smith and Cumberbum? I dont think so- but then the NTA also voted This Morning best factual and the main award of the night is for best soap opera.

correct.

Now I would never have guessed that you two would disapprove!

he's better than Matt Smith anyhoo.

That last scene in Merlin was just

Never got into Merlin.

Well, Arthur is his one and all.

Took me a second.

Oh now that was odd! I was reading Orwell's comment and thinking: Oh Fandom, where art thou!
Hi Annette!

It's a cute series, lots of bromance and it has a DRAGON!! Good actors who don't get much space to shine. It could have been awesome but the writing is a bit... uneven.